governess-student (Madame Perrodon and Laura)

Madame Perrodon, a native of Berne, was the good-natured governess who had been with Laura from, as Laura put it, almost her infancy. Laura could not remember a time when her fat, benignant face was not a familiar picture in her memory. Her care and good nature in part supplied to Laura the loss of her mother, whom Laura had lost so early she did not even remember her. She made a third at the little dinner party in the schloss, speaking French and broken English, while Laura and her father added English to the household's Babel of languages.

Role and Relationship with Laura

Madame Perrodon exercised just so much control over Laura as might be expected of a sage person in the case of a rather spoiled girl whose only parent allowed her pretty nearly her own way in everything. She was a constant companion, present at the evening walk when the carriage carrying Carmilla arrived, and she was the one who tenderly answered the young stranger's first confused questions, telling her where she was and offering comfortable assurances. When Laura became nervous after her first dream-attack, it was to Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine that she confided what lay so heavy at her heart. Madame Perrodon looked anxious at the tale, while Mademoiselle laughed, showing the governess's deeper concern for her charge's welfare.

Presence During the Crisis

During the night of Carmilla's mysterious disappearance, Madame Perrodon came scurrying out of her room in alarm when Laura screamed for help. She joined in the frantic knocking at Carmilla's door and the subsequent search. When Laura insisted on passing the remaining hours of darkness in someone's room, it was Madame's room she chose. Later, when Doctor Spielsberg arrived to examine Laura, Madame accompanied her to the library and stood with her at the far end of the room, burning with curiosity, while the doctor and Laura's father conferred in the window recess. The doctor gave Madame the specific direction that Laura must not be left alone for one moment, and Madame satisfied him eagerly that she would observe this. That night, Madame was one of the two servants who sat up in Laura's room, while the priest and Laura's father kept watch in the adjoining dressing room.

Narrative Significance

Madame Perrodon represents the stable, maternal presence in Laura's isolated life, a figure of ordinary kindness and domestic routine against which the extraordinary horror of Carmilla's intrusion is measured. Her anxious response to Laura's dream, her immediate care for the injured stranger, and her faithful adherence to the doctor's protective orders all underscore her role as a reliable guardian. She is part of the small, trusting household that the vampire infiltrates, and her very ordinariness makes the supernatural violation more stark. Her presence, along with Mademoiselle De Lafontaine's, provides the only female companionship and supervision Laura has, making the gradual erosion of Laura's health and will all the more poignant as it happens under the eyes of a governess who cannot see what is truly occurring.